It is widely known that there is a growing demand for personal care and cosmetic products that are free from certain components perceived to be potentially harmful, which are found in many common preservative (i.e., antimicrobial) compositions. In particular, there is a strong demand in the marketplace for use in consumer and industrial products generally for alternatives to common preservative materials such as formaldehyde-releasing compounds (due to the known hazards of formaldehyde), phenolic compounds, certain paraben compounds (i.e., para-hydroxybenzoate esters), and certain halogenated compounds.
Known alternatives to such compounds are the fatty glyceryl monoester materials developed by Kabara, such as glyceryl laurate, glyceryl caprylate, and the like. These high monoester-containing materials tend to have relatively weak antimicrobial activity compared to traditional preservatives, however. In addition, many of the monoesters are solids at room temperature, and may require excessive heating to incorporate them into cosmetic or personal care products. The use of heat to dissolve or admix components in cosmetic and personal care product manufacturing processes can lead to undesirable side reactions, degradation of key ingredients, and discoloration in some cases, and is uneconomically energy intensive.
There is an ongoing need for new liquid preservative compositions for use in cosmetics and personal care products, especially, which are free from formaldehyde, formaldehyde-releasing compounds, phenolic compounds, paraben compounds, and preferably free from halogenated compounds, while still maintaining a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity, and which can be formulated into personal care and cosmetic products without undue heating. The present invention fulfills these needs.